On Tuesday, Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan announced there will be a “weekly order of business” session of the Illinois House this week, focused on pensions.

This means there will be floor debate on legislative amendments that, if passed into law, would reduce pension benefits for participants in TRS, SURS and the other state pension systems.

The floor debate and voting, which are expected to begin on Thursday, will focus on areas of great concern to IEA members in the affected pension systems;

The annual cost of living adjustment (COLA)

The retirement age for active members of the state pension systems

Employee contributions to the retirement systems, as well other pension-impacting proposals offered by members of the House.

This is a serious attack on your pension– Call NOW!

IEA members are urged to contact their state representatives immediately to stop these pension-cutting proposals from getting out of the House.

Tell your representative that the only proposals they should support are those calling for guaranteed funding of the state pension systems and for a dedicated source of revenue for pensions, such as pension obligation bonds.

Also, be sure to tell your representative that the employee contributions must not be increased more than two percentage points.

Make the call NOW! Call 888-412-6570 to be connected to your state representative. Print out this information so you can refer to it when you get your representative on the phone,

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